Slovenia has signed an Intergovernmental Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) with the U.S. Government for the purchase of 38 Oshkosh Joint Light Tactical Vehicles (JLTV).

The agreement was signed by Minister of Defense Karl Erjavec representing the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Slovenia on Oct. 12, 2018.

The value of the contract for the purchase of 38 JLTV vehicles, taking into account administrative costs, tools, spare parts and training, is EUR 15,688,704 excluding VAT.

An additional contract is expected to be signed in the first quarter of 2019 to include remote-controlled weapon systems at an estimated value of EUR 11,336,283 excluding VAT . The total investment is estimated at a maximum of EUR 32 million with included transport and VAT .

The reason for the two-phase signing of the contract for the purchase of vehicles and the the weapon system is in the request for the installation of 76 mm smoke bombs that the Slovenian Armed Forces already have in operational use and in the acquisition of an additional offer by a German manufacturer.

The purchase was carried out through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) procedure.

The vehicles that are the subject of the contract have the same configuration as the vehicles intended for the U.S. Army.

The Slovenian MoD claimed that it paid approximately 50 percent of the estimated value of the same number of comparable vehicles with armament, found in the previous market survey.

With 18 new vehicles LKOV 4 x 4 with armament systems, we will equip the unit for special operations and with 20 units of the unit of the medium battalion battle group for the provision of national defense and fulfillment of NATO’s goals of capability for the Slovenian Armed Forces.

Eighteen of the new JLTVs will be delivered to the special operations forces with the remaining 20 units to the medium battalion battle group for the provision of national defense and fulfillment of NATO’s goals of capability for the Slovenian Armed Forces.

All vehicles will be equipped with the Kongsberg M153 remote control weapon system and an integrated 7.69 mm machine gun or a 12.7 mm machine gun or an automatic 40 mm caliber bomber, already operational in the Slovenian Army.

Lightweight 4×4 wheeled vehicles with integrated remote control systems will be delivered to the Slovenian Army in 2021, 2022 and 2023 in accordance with the signed agreement.

The purchase of light 4 x 4 lightweight wheeled armored vehicles is planned in the budget of the Republic of Slovenia for the years 2018 and 2019, which was adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Slovenia , before which it was discussed and approved by the competent committees of the National Assembly.